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f followers went into raptures, while he himself could find nothing more forcible to express how much he worshipped himself. All at once there was a slight stir. Bongrand, who had been walking about with his hands behind his back, glancing vaguely around him, had just stumbled on Chambouvard, and the public, drawing back, whispered, and watched the two celebrated artists shaking hands; the one short and of a sanguine temperament, the other tall and restless. Some expressions of good-fellowship were overheard. 'Always fresh marvels.' 'Of course! And you, nothing this year?' 'No, nothing; I am resting, seeking--' 'Come, you joker! There's no need to seek, the thing comes by itself.' 'Good-bye.' 'Good-bye.' And Chambouvard, followed by his court, was already moving slowly away among the crowd, with the glances of a king, who enjoys life, while Bongrand, who had recognised Claude and his friends, approached them with outstretched feverish hands, and called attention to the sculptor with a nervous jerk of the chin, saying, 'There's a fellow I envy! Ah! to be confident of always producing masterpieces!' He complimented Mahoudeau on his 'Vintaging Girl'; showed himself paternal to all of them, with that broad-minded good-nature of his, the free and easy manner of an old Bohemian of the romantic school, who had settled down and was decorated. Then, turning to Claude: 'Well, what did I tell you? Did you see upstairs? You have become the chief of a school.' 'Ah! yes,' replied Claude. 'They are giving it me nicely. You are the master of us all.' But Bongrand made his usual gesture of vague suffering and went off, saying, 'Hold your tongue! I am not even my own master.' For a few moments longer the band wandered through the garden. They had gone back to look at the 'Vintaging Girl,' when Jory noticed that Gagniere no longer had Irma Becot on his arm. Gagniere was stupefied; where the deuce could he have lost her? But when Fagerolles had told him that she had gone off in the crowd with two gentlemen, he recovered his composure, and followed the others, lighter of heart now that he was relieved of that girl who had bewildered him. People now only moved about with difficulty. All the seats were taken by storm; groups blocked up the paths, where the promenaders paused every now and then, flowing back around the successful bits of bronze and marble. From the crowded buffet there arose a loud buzzing, a clatter of saucers an
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